


Lets get this bread!

by Ash0605



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Actually I lied there is no fic give honoka your bread nOW, Baking, Birthday, Bread, Everyone Is Gay, Gen, Honoka and Kotori bake bread, Tags Are Hard, thats it thats the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:20:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25697179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ash0605/pseuds/Ash0605
Summary: Give a girl a slice of bread and she will feed herself for a dayTeach her how to make bread herself and she will feed herself for a lifetime.Happy Birthday Honoka!
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	Lets get this bread!

It had been 3 hours since Honoka’s world had been rocked. The last time the foundations of her existence had been shattered so thoroughly was when she discovered A-Rise for the first time, or when she first beat Umi in a swordfight.

Honoka had always loved bread. She loved how it was soft and light and squishy. Bread could take on an infinite assortment of shapes and flavors. It was easy to acquire and easy to eat. It, and perhaps this was most important of all, wasn’t red bean paste. She was convinced the biggest mistake she had ever made involved putting strawberries as her favorite food on her school idol profile instead of bread. The last time she had eaten a strawberry was months ago, yet the soft dough had graced her taste buds every lunchtime.

A single curious question from Hanayo had transformed her world view.

“Have you ever baked bread before?”

Honoka’s arms, which were in the midst of lifting a piece of bread to her mouth, dropped to the table with a thud. Her mouth opened with a gasp and her eyes widened.

“Bake bread? You can bake bread?!” Honoka exclaimed, slapping her hands against her forehead.

“I-I just thought you would have considering you love it so much!” Hanayo stammered, drawing her hands into herself and looking away.

“Oh no!” Honoka reassured. With her mind frazzled, the best way she thought of to comfort Hanayo was to flail her arms around frantically. “I just didn’t know?!”

She turned to Kotori standing adjacent to her, who was regarding her with a nervous yet sympathetic smile. On the other hand, Umi looked at her with narrowed eyes and a judgmental frown.

Turning away from her friends, Honoka picked up the half-eaten morsel in her hands and studied it.

You could make this? Yourself? With your own hands?

Honoka reminisced on what had happened while waiting in the kitchen of the Minami household. She couldn’t have genuinely forgotten that you could bake bread, right? She was the daughter of a food creating family, after all. It was something 7-year-old Honoka would do. 17-year-old Honoka wasn’t book smart but she certainly wasn’t stupid. However, with µ’s and other activities occupying her time, the only bread related thought she had in her brain was its consumption.

Honoka fist pumped to herself, regarding her internal logic with a triumphant breath. Honoka Kousaka never forgets, she just doesn’t always remember!

As Honoka concluded her line of reasoning, Kotori entered the room and regarded Honoka with a cheerful wave. She wore a clean, white blouse with a simple similarly coloured long skirt.

“I’m sorry so long Honoka-chan! I’m ready to start now!”

Honoka’s mouth curled into a smile. “I can’t wait! I also figured out the reason why I reacted the way I did!” Kotori’s smile morphed into a more thoughtful expression as she tilted her head in curiosity. “It wasn’t that I didn’t know you could bake bread, I just forgot!”

Kotori chuckled weakly, in a gesture that didn’t promote much confidence in her theory. “I’m glad you figured it out.” She moved towards the spotless worktop in the center of the room. “I’m looking forward to showing you how to bake bread! I’ve measured out the ingredients for both of us already.” she notified Honoka happily, gesturing towards the components on the table.

Honoka regarded the ingredients with narrowed eyes. There was a measured portion of flour in a bowl, a smaller helping of salt and sugar in their own containers and an even smaller quantity of a substance Honoka didn’t recognize. There was also a medium sized rectangular metal tin and a cream coloured plastic bowl. Finally, there was a small container filled with water. “This doesn’t seem like a lot. Can this really be turned into bread?”

“Yes it is! Bread is really easy to make once you know how!” Kotori reassured. Honoka waited with bated breath for Kotori to continue and share the secrets of bread creation. “The first step of creating bread is to put on an apron!”

Honoka raised an eyebrow in confusion, her expectations admittedly not met. Kotori grabbed her hand suddenly and pulled her towards a cabinet at the other end of the kitchen, yanking the cabinet open to reveal a small wardrobe of aprons.

“You can store this in your kitchen?” Honoka asked, dumbfounded. “If I tried to store my clothes in the kitchen I would get scolded!”

“We weren’t using this cabinet before, so we had the space to put these here.” Kotori explained. “Besides, there is a difference between regular clothes and aprons.”

“I’m not sure.” Honoka countered. “Aprons count as clothes! You could wear one on its own without anything else!”

Kotori placed her hands on her cheeks and smiled to herself indulgently. After a few seconds she gasped and thrust her hands into the cabinet, revealing a slight blush where her hands had covered her face. “Ummmm, I think you would fit this apron.” Kotori suggested tremulously.

Honoka donned the apron before looking at the front. The apron was pitch black save for some bold, white text – ‘LETS GET THIS BREAD’.

“That amazing Kotori-chan!” Honoka praised, tying the apron securely around her back.

“Kyahhh! You look so cool!” Kotori beamed. She reached into the cabinet and pulled out a different apron, a pale blue one adorned with various cartoonish birds. “I’ll wear my favorite one!” she declared, securing the apron around her back. She turned to look at Honoka and smile genuinely. “Isn’t this great Honoka-chan! Wearing cute aprons gets you so excited to bake!”

Honoka nodded in agreement. “It really does! I’ve never thought about it that way before!”

“I bet you haven’t!” Kotori chuckled. Her brown eyes were sparkling with anticipation. “Let’s wash our hands and get started!”

After washing their hands in warm soapy water, the girls moved to the worktop and stood adjacent to each other, each with their own allotment of ingredients and equipment.

“Firstly, we need to make to dough.” Kotori started. She reached for her own mixing bowl. “Pour in the flour, sugar and salt and mix it all together.” After tipping her own ingredients in, she made sure had put her own ingredients in before starting to mix the items together with her hands. After a few seconds of hesitation spent watching Kotori, Honoka did the same.

“Now you add the yeast, which is this stuff here.” Kotori pointed towards the container of the unknown substance before pouring it into her mixture.

“So that’s what it is! I didn’t know what it was!” Honoka tipped the yeast into her own mixture.

“Now watch me for the next part.” Kotori took the small jug of water and started pouring a little bit into the mixture before setting the jug down and using her hands to mix it together. “Pour in a little bit of water and mix it all around. Make sure to only add small amounts of water at a time.” She warned, reaching for the jug again.

Honoka nodded and reached for her own jug. She clumsily tipped in a little bit more water than she would have liked, causing her to gasp.

“What’s wrong Honoka-chan?” Kotori asked.

“I think I poured a bit too much water in!” Honoka admitted, her voice quavering.

Kotori rushed over to have a look, narrowing her eyes in concern. Her expression lightened once she realized that it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. “You haven’t poured too much in, so I think you’re ok. Just mix it together now!” she reassured, giving Honoka a cheery smile.

Honoka nodded tentatively and slowly lowered her hands into the mixture. She recoiled at first due to the cold water, but eventually got used to it and started mixing the ingredients all together. After confirming that Honoka was making progress, Kotori smiled to herself and continued tending to her own mixture, adding in another helping of water.

After a few minutes of the work the pair had emptied their measurements of water. Honoka turned to Kotori and tilted her head. “Is this done yet? I’m not sure what I’m looking for.”

Kotori swiftly moved over and inspected Honoka’s bowl, prodding and grabbing it with her hands. “I think yours is done! The dough isn’t sticky, which is what we are looking for.”

“Oh that’s good!” Honoka exclaimed, her face lighting up. “What happens if it’s too sticky?”

“We simply mix in more flour. I’ve just finished too so we’re onto the next step!” After rummaging through some drawers under the worktop, Kotori produced a roll of cling film. “We need to cover the dough with this and let it rise for 1 hour.”

“1 hour!” Honoka objected in disbelief. “I feel like we’ve just barely started!”

Kotori unwrapped the roll of cling film ignoring Honoka’s outcry. After covering the entrance of her own bowl with cling film, Kotori moved to Honoka’s and did the same. “The dough needs enough time to rise. We’ll just have to do something else until then.” Kotori smiled.

Honoka groaned in disappointment and her face dropped. They were just getting started too. “Wait,” she realized, her eyes widening. “The dough rises?”

Kotori giggled. “It does!” she said matter-of-factly. “You’ll have to wait and see.”

\----------

After cleaning up the kitchen, Honoka and Kotori left to fumble around and pass the time. They returned about 55 minutes later. Honoka was rubbing her hands together and grinning slightly. She couldn’t wait to see the dough rise. Kotori simply wore a knowing smile, licking her lips with anticipation.

She inspected the two bowls and nodded triumphantly. Just as Kotori predicted, Honoka let out an astonished gasp.

“Oh my god! The dough rose!” The dough in both bowls had risen from the base of the bowls to over half its capacity. After watching Kotori remove the cling film above her bowl, she tore off the one above her own eagerly.

“This is such a good rise!” Kotori exclaimed. “That’s the yeast working!”

Honoka tilted her head. “So this is what the yeast does?”

“It is! The yeast feeds on the sugar in the mixture and produces gas which makes the bread rise. It’s also responsible for some of its flavor.”

Honoka nodded in understanding and poked in her head into the bowl. “Thank you for making the bread rise yeast!”

Kotori threw her head back and started laughing, and when Honoka removed her head from the bowl and grinned at her, she started laughing even more. “S-stop it Honoka-chan! You’re making me laugh! L-let’s try the next step.” she finished, taking deep breaths to recompose herself.

“What’s the next step?”

“We knead the dough next. It’s probably the hardest step for new bakers, but don’t worry! I’ll help you!” Kotori reassured with sweet, dulcet tones.

After receiving the go ahead from Honoka, Kotori sprinkled some flour on the worktop and placed her dough on top of it. She stretched the dough away from her using the heels of her hands and then used her soft fingers to fold the dough back over towards her. To prevent the dough sticking to the table, she replaced the flour on the worktop periodically. She narrated the entire process to Honoka, repeating it twice more to provide clarification.

“I think I understand.” Honoka asserted, albeit still sounding unsure. She laid flour on top of the worktop and removed her dough from the bowl but stalled after this, looking at Kotori with confused eyes.

“Why don’t I come over and guide you?” Kotori suggested cheerfully. She moved over behind Honoka and grasped her hands with her own. When Kotori felt her hands brush against Honoka’s she started grinning and blushing profusely, though this went unnoticed by Honoka. Kotori slowly used her hands to guide Honoka’s through the process. She went slower due to how unwieldy she was using Honoka’s hands, but this was fine as it gave Honoka more time to take in the information and Kotori more time to hold Honoka’s hands.

After a few repetitions Kotori reluctantly let go of Honoka’s hands but stayed close to watch her do it herself. As Honoka got into the groove of it she started working faster and more enthusiastically.

“I think I’ve got it now. Thank you Kotori-chan!” Honoka said graciously.

“You’re welcome! We need to knead this for about 10 minutes.” Kotori stated, returning to her own dough and starting to knead.

“We KNEAD to knead it?!” Honoka joked.

Kotori doubled over, almost spluttering into her dough. “Honoka-chan!” she laughed.

The pair continued kneading the dough until 10 minutes was up, exchanging small talk as they worked feverishly. After the pair stopped, Kotori checked both hers and Honoka’s dough. She removed a small amount of dough from the piles and pressed it between her thumb and two fingers. When the dough stretched without breaking both times she cried with delight.

“We’re finished kneading! Now we just need to put it in the tins and place it in the oven!”

“Does this mean we’re almost done?!” Honoka asked excited. When Kotori answered with a nod she jumped for joy. “Hurray! I can’t wait to eat homemade bread!”

“I’m looking forward to it too, Honoka-chan!” Kotori concurred with a smile.

After oiling the two tins the dough was squashed into a loaf shape and placed inside. After Kotori traced a cut over the top of the two loaves with a knife she placed the tins in the oven, which had fully pre-heated during their preparations.

“Whew!” Kotori breathed, wiping her brow with a cloth after closing the oven door “It just needs about 30 minutes now, or until its golden brown.”

“We did it Kotori-chan!” Honoka thanked, flashing Kotori a thumbs up. “I never knew making bread would be this -”

Kotori leaped forward and wrapped her arms around Honoka, spinning her around after she tightened her grip. “Wow Honoka-chan! You did amazing and you look so dashing in that apron!” Kotori exulted, nuzzling into the crook of Honoka’s neck.

Honoka took a step back, using her free hand to rub the nape of her neck. “Hehehehe… don’t give me too much credit! You were the one teaching me, and your apron is super cute too!”

Kotori looked up from Honoka’s neck, her brown eyes meeting Honoka’s blues. “We’ve got about 30 minutes to wait…” she pondered. “We should probably clean up.”

“Sure thing!” Honoka nodded.

Kotori packed away the ingredients and equipment while Honoka focused on washing up and cleaning the worktop. After a few minutes they were completely finished, and they spent the rest of the wait relaxing and making pleasant small talk in the kitchen, checking the bread every few minutes.

\----------

After donning her oven mitts, Kotori opened the oven to a wave of heat. She withdrew the two bread tins and placed them on the worktop, marveling with Honoka at the golden-brown crust.

“I can’t believe it! It looks just like bread!” Honoka exclaimed, licking her lips hungrily. “Just in time too, I could do with some food.”

“I’m quite hungry too!” Kotori agreed pleasantly. “We need to let it cool first though.” Kotori grasped the two loaves and pulled them out of the tins, placing them on a drying rack. “In the meantime, shall we have some tea?”

Honoka agreed enthusiastically, and Kotori prepared the kettle and two cups. After a few minutes, the tea was ready. The pair sat down and took a sip in unison, sighing together contentedly.

“Ahhh! That tea hit the spot!” Kotori gushed.

“You don’t need to say that twice! I can’t get Yukiho to do this for me anymore.” Honoka’s voice trailed off, and she started looking where Kotori was looking.

“I think its time to try the bread, don’t you agree?”

Honoka’s face lit up instantly. “Let’s do it! I can’t wait!”

Kotori nodded in acknowledge. She got up out of her seat and retrieved a bread knife, cutting a slice off each loaf of bread. The insides were soft and fresh. Kotori pressed her finger against one of the slices, smiling to herself when the inside sprung back. She had lost track of which bread was whose, but it didn’t really matter as both breads turned out great.

“Thank you for the food!” the pair cheered. Honoka swiped a slice from the table and Kotori picked up the one left behind. Both of them took an eager bite and took a second to savor the flavor. Honoka’s expression lit up more and more as she chewed and took in every fresh, warm bite.

“This is amazing!” she cried in jubilation. “I never knew you could make bread this good by yourself! Honestly, I could cry!”

“Aww! I’m glad you like it Honoka-chan!” Kotori gushed, placing a free hand on her side of her cheek. She breathed a contented sigh. “To be honest, as much as I would love to do fashion, I would also love to just bake and make food. Imagine living in a sunny cottage in the countryside, baking an endless number of treats and foods…” Kotori’s voice trailed off as her mind wandered.

“That sounds cool! I don’t think my family would let me do it since I have to work the shop.” Honoka crossed her arms and grumbled but lightened up as she saw Kotori daydreaming.

“Say, Kotori-chan.” Honoka asked, snapping Kotori out of her stupor. “If you ever do end up living in a cottage like that, I would love to come over and bake with you!” She flashed Kotori a huge grin.

Kotori’s eyes widened and she felt her heart skip a beat in her chest. A faint red hue painted her face as she returned Honoka’s smile. “I would love that so much.” she beamed.

**Author's Note:**

> I had a lot of fun writing and researching for this fic (I haven't done much bread making myself - Honoka would be sad). However, while Honoka got to learn from a cute anime girl I had to learn from the internet, which just isn't the same. Feel free to criticise the method I used in this fic, and make sure to stan Honoka!
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! If you have any comments or feedback feel free to leave them here!
> 
> I hope you have a good rest of your day and I wish you the best in staying safe!


End file.
